


Housewarming

by pterawaters



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Moving In Together, Sharing a Bed, Sleepy Kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:00:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26069110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: Steve ends up in San Diego, and when Danny comes for a visit, Steve shows him all his old Coronado haunts. The visit gets extended, then extended some more, and then inspired by an old friend, Danny and Steve decide to make their stay in San Diego permanent. After that, it's only logical for them to use their skills to open up a PI business.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 44
Kudos: 147
Collections: H50 Big Bang 2020





	Housewarming

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the [2020 Hawaii Five-0 Big Bang](https://h50bigbang.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> The beautiful art was done by Rehaliah ([tumblr](https://rehaliahdrarys.tumblr.com/) | [AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarKymi))! Thank you so much!
> 
> This work was beta read by [Ren](https://renecdote.tumblr.com/)! Many thanks!

Listen to the playlist here: [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwrfWxdZYcm2zmNbVRu53HlX7yYoh2swR) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/72VdkGXau8Vy4gg8SQQaj1?si=Y4GRwCFrRcaBIQmJQAIeCw)

~*~

Steve stood around at the San Diego airport baggage claim, waiting and trying not to look too nervous. He'd gone longer stretches of time without seeing Danny, but somehow these past six weeks had felt… different somehow. Longer. 

Maybe Danny was right and he left too soon after everything that happened. He should have stayed longer, at least until Danny was back in fighting shape, ready to take over command of Five-0. Not that he wanted the job, or would even take it if Steve offered. If stubborn had its picture in the dictionary, it would look like a photo of one Daniel Williams.

"Yo, McGarrett," said a familiar voice, and Steve turned around to see Danny walking toward him. He was wearing shorts, slip-on shoes, and a t-shirt. He had a sweatshirt in one hand and a shopping bag in the other. 

Steve couldn't help but smile at the sight, reminded of days spent on the beach out back behind his father's house, Danny drinking his beer and insulting his hometown, and yet somehow still endearing. Beloved curmudgeon, indeed. "Hey, there he is!" Steve called out, meeting Danny halfway and wrapping his arms around the guy.

Danny squeezed Steve back, and Steve found himself taking a deep breath in, savoring the familiar way Danny smelled. Still hugging Steve, Danny laughed and said, "This has got to be the smallest airport I've ever been in."

"Smaller than Lihue over on Kauai?" Steve asked, making himself let go of Danny. He got as far as putting Danny at arm's length, holding onto his shoulders and smiling at him like an idiot.

Danny's brows jumped up and he laughed again, looking around. "I stand corrected."

Pointing at the baggage carousel, Steve asked, "You got a bag coming?"

"Yeah," Danny sighed, lifting the shopping bag. "Plane didn't have room for my suitcase in the overheads. They made me check it. Had to buy something to get the plastic bag so I could put my book and stuff in it. Didn't want to lose anything on the plane."

"Very resourceful of you," Steve said, sliding his arm across Danny's shoulders and directing him toward the correct baggage claim. "How was the flight?"

"Fine," Danny said, tolerating the arm around his shoulders. In fact, as they approached the carousel, he might have leaned closer to Steve. Just a little bit. 

Steve wasn't going to call him out on it and risk driving Danny away.

"I ended up talking to the woman in the seat next to mine for most of the flight," Danny added. "She's got a kid in college too."

Not wanting to hear about Danny's latest love connection, Steve dropped his arm from around Danny's shoulders. "I still can't believe Gracie's finishing her first year at college. It seems like just yesterday she was this tiny little thing with pigtails and that Williams-family attitude."

Danny scoffed and rolled his eyes, but he was smiling too. "I don't know. I remember feeling a lot more spry myself when she was still in grade school."

"Well..." Steve said, giving Danny a sly, teasing grin. "You busted your knee pretty soon after I met you. Didn't look too spry with that cane you had to take everywhere."

The backhand hit to Steve's stomach wasn't a surprise, and it definitely hit more like a love tap than an actual reprimand. Danny followed the smack up with a gesture at the airport around them. "So, San Diego. Any reason you landed here?"

Steve shrugged. "I saw some of the East Coast, besides D.C. I went to Europe for a couple weeks. But, I don't know. Nothing really… felt right. I spent a lot of time based out of Coronado. Deb lived in LA for a long time. This city feels almost as much like home as Oahu ever did."

"Mild climate, ocean right there," Danny said, reaching forward and pulling a small suitcase from the conveyor belt. "I can see why you like it." He pulled the handle up on his suitcase, making a show like he wouldn't give it to Steve to pull out to the car, before acquiescing a moment later, rolling his shoulder like it still hurt him. The gunshot wound wasn't even three months old yet. Steve wouldn't be surprised if it still gave Danny twinges now and then. Taking his sunglasses out of the shopping bag, Danny put them on as they walked out to the parking structure. "So, when is Grace expecting us?"

"We've got three hours," Steve told him. "Plenty of time to get up to Irvine in time for dinner."

Shaking his head, Danny said, "I still don't know why you had me fly in here, instead of LAX like every other time I visited my little girl this year."

"So it's more convenient on your way back home," Steve said, though he could admit to himself that wasn't the only reason. "She's looking forward to seeing you, in any case."

"How'd she look?" Danny asked, following Steve through the parking structure. "When you saw her last week? Did she look okay?"

Shaking his head at Danny's worrying, Steve laughed and said, "Yeah. She looks good. You raised a good kid, Danny. She's got a good head on her shoulders."

His warm hand on Steve's shoulder, Danny said, "Hey, thanks, man. I really appreciate it."

"Yeah, no problem," Steve said, stopping behind the sedan he'd rented. It was beige. Steve hated it, but he wasn't sure he was ready to put down roots as tangible as buying a car. He popped open the trunk and lifted Danny's suitcase in.

When he closed the trunk, Danny was holding out his hand, like he expected Steve to give him something.

"What?"

"Keys," Danny said, thrusting his hand out again. "Gimme the keys."

Steve had to laugh. "You don't know where you're going, Danny! And besides, it's my name on the rental, not yours. Do you know how much I would be liable for if I let you drive this thing and you get into an accident?"

"Oh, thank God," Danny said with a relieved sigh. "This is a _rental_. I thought you'd lost your mind and bought the most boring car on earth!"

A wave of laughter rolled over Steve, stealing his breath until he leaned down and put his hands on his knees. "Oh, Danno," he said, still chuckling as he stood up and pulled Danny into another hug. "I missed you."

"Missed you, too, Steve," Danny said, his voice gentler than Steve had heard from him in a long time.

~*~

"Danno!" Grace cried as she came out of her dorm and out to the curb where Steve's stupid rental car was parked. 

Danny opened his arms and caught her in a tight hug. "Hey, there, Monkey!"

"Oh, my god," she said, rolling her eyes and patting Danny's shoulder until he put her down. "Don't call me that! What if my friends heard you?"

"They would think that our close father-daughter bond is charming," Danny assured her, stealing another hug before letting Steve have a turn. 

Hugging Danny's daughter tightly, he said, "Gracie," in that way that made Danny trust him with her life, knowing he loved her like she was his own. Danny trusted his sisters like that. His parents, of course. Not his brother, but that was a moot point now. Steve, though? Danny trusted Steve with everything, his daughter included.

He thought that was part of the reason it hurt so bad when Steve had left, part of the reason Danny hadn't been able to force himself into the house to watch Steve give his goodbyes to everyone else. Junior had found him down by the water half an hour later, still staring out at the waves, trying not to calculate how close Steve was getting to the airport, even with all the traffic.

The first hesitant phone call after Steve's departure had happened less than twenty four hours later, after the exchange of a series of texts assuring Danny that Steve had landed safely and that he wasn't going to cut off all contact just because he was traveling for a while. In that twenty-four hours, something had become painfully clear to Danny that he'd been able to ignore before. Steve was more important to Danny than just as a work partner, or a friend, or even a best friend.

Danny almost felt like there wasn't a label for the place he'd carved out in his life, that Steve had wriggled his way into over the course of close to a decade. At least, there was no label that Danny had any sort of framework for understanding.

When they got to the restaurant, Grace said (still with a lot of her teenage exuberance), "Oh, my god, you guys. This place is the best. I ate here when my roommate's parents were in town, and the seafood is just amazing. It kind of reminds me of home." 

Danny couldn't help but smile at his daughter, but Steve asked, his hand on Danny's shoulder, "Should we have offered to bring her roommate to dinner?"

"Don't worry," Danny told Steve, patting his hand. "Ashley and I are old friends at this point. I did the polite thing and offered to bring her, but she said she was too busy studying for her last final."

Grace snorted with amusement, opening the restaurant door and passing it off to Danny as she went through.

Narrowing his eyes at her, Danny asked his daughter, "What's that sound? You rolled your eyes. What am I missing out on?"

"Nothing," Grace said, stopping in the line waiting to speak to the hostess. "I'm pretty sure Ashley is just spending the night with her boyfriend, not studying."

"Oh," Danny said, giving Steve a look that pleaded for his help. He knew Grace was eighteen, almost nineteen now. She was an adult who had friends that were adults. Still, the thought of his Gracie having a friend who spent the night with a _boy_ made his blood pressure skyrocket.

"Um, Grace," Steve said, giving Danny an equally worried look. "Is there a b-boy-type person that you, um, spend the-the…"

Laughing, Grace said, "Don't hurt yourself. And no. Not at the moment.”

Danny gave a sigh of relief, and then it was their turn to talk to the hostess. Steve stepped up and started talking before Danny could, saying, “We’ve got a reservation under McGarrett, for three.”

The hostess smiled and said, “Okay! We’ve got your table ready. Right this way, please!”

Danny followed the others, noting that this place was fancier than he was dressed for. As they walked, Danny pulled Steve close and murmured to him, “Why didn’t you tell me this is a nice place? I look like a schmuck!”

“Your suitcase is still in the car,” Steve said, taking the keys out of his pocket. “If you wanna get fancied up, I wouldn’t complain.”

With an annoyed scoff, Danny took the keys. “Order me a beer. Nothing too fancy.”

Steve winked, which made Danny roll his eyes as he left, trying not to stomp through the fancy restaurant. Ten minutes later, he returned to the table wearing khaki slacks and a short-sleeve button down shirt. It wasn’t a fancy outfit by any means, but at least he didn’t feel so much like an asshole tourist know-nothing.

“Hey,” he said to the others, sitting down across from Steve and next to Grace. “This better?”

Grace told him, “You look like a dad.”

“Is that supposed to be an insult?” Danny asked her. “I am a dad. I’m _your_ dad. What, have you forgotten the past eighteen years where I was there? Doing all that dad stuff for you? Changing your diapers and teaching you how to ride a bike, and,” he raised his eyebrows, “bringing you to all those cheerleading competitions?”

“I don’t remember the first few years,” Grace said casually, looking at her menu. “Definitely not the diaper changing.”

Steve laughed, so Danny gave him a betrayed look. He almost told Grace how much she sounded like her mother just then, but he and Rachel had been on the outs more and more lately and he was trying _not_ to badmouth her in front of either of their kids. 

“Hello!” said the waiter, popping up out of nowhere. “Welcome to Ivy's! Do you know what you’ll be having this evening?”

“I’ll have the seafood platter,” Grace said, as Danny opened his menu to quickly figure out what he wanted. 

“Just so you know, that’s a lot of food,” the waiter said, and Danny got his hackles up over the man’s condescending tone. “Are your dads going to help you polish it off?”

Danny shot a glance over at Steve, wondering if he’d caught the waiter’s implication that they were both her dads. And really, why would he assume differently? Danny knew that as much as Grace took after him in the personality department, she didn’t look much like him. She looked a lot more like Rachel, and actually the Williams side of Danny's family. He understood why someone might assume he and Steve had adopted her or something. 

Grace hardly seemed to notice. “Don’t worry,” she told the waiter. “My stomach is bigger than it looks.”

They finished ordering, and once the waiter left, Danny was going to ask Steve about the assumption, but Grace changed the subject before he could. 

“I saw Auntie Kono last weekend,” she said, taking a sip of water. “She’s been in LA for a couple of months, working with the FBI here, I think.”

“Really?” Steve asked, leaning over the table closer to Grace. “I haven’t seen her since…” He gave Danny a look. 

“Yeah, me neither,” Danny replied. “It’s been a couple months since I caught up with her by phone.” He flexed his shoulder and said, “Didn’t want to admit to her I’d been shot. _Again_.”

“Hey, why not?” Steve asked him, kicking Danny lightly under the table. “Kono’s been shot before. She knows what it’s like.”

“This is too much talk of shooting,” Grace declared. “I just wanted to tell you guys that Kono is in town, and I bet she’d love to see you. I’ve got finals, but I’m sure you can catch up without me.”

“We know how to have friends, thank you very much,” Danny told her with a frown. Still, the thought of seeing Kono in person after all this time was a bit nerve wracking. Especially after everything that had gone down with her and Adam, and then Five-0 taking Adam on.

When Steve took his phone out of his pocket and started typing something, Danny asked him, “What are you doing? We’re trying to have a nice dinner with Grace, who I hardly get to see anymore, and you’re _texting_?”

“I’m texting Kono,” Steve told him. “Seeing if she wants to get together for drinks later.”

“Can I come?” Grace asked, giving Danny an innocent look as she took a sip of her sparkling water. As much as Danny had resented his little girl assimilating into Oahu culture, he realized that he hated what Southern California was turning her into even more. 

“No, you cannot come,” Danny told her, realizing Steve’s grin meant Danny had just accidentally agreed to attending. Pushing past his annoyance, Danny told Grace, “First of all, you’re not even nineteen yet, let alone twenty-one. And second of all, don’t you have finals to study for?”

“Don’t remind me,” she said in a dark voice. “I’m starting to think Marine Biology isn’t for me.”

Danny gave Steve a concerned look. His baby was struggling with something? “Grace, you’ve been talking about being a marine biologist ever since the dolphin-trainer Barbie days. Are you sure?”

Grace looked like she was waffling a bit on the decision, but before she could say this, Steve told her, “It doesn’t hurt to check out other options. You’ve still got another three years to figure it out.”

“Says the man who’s _not_ paying her out-of-State tuition,” Danny said with a scoff.

“All I’m saying is that sometimes locking into a career too early can make you miss out on other opportunities,” Steve told her. 

Seeing something in Steve’s face, Danny asked him, “Are we talking about Grace, or are we talking about you, effectively, joining the Navy when you were sixteen?”

“I’m speaking about Grace’s options from _experience_ ,” Steve insisted, making an emphatic gesture in front of his chest. “I could have been a musician or something.”

“You had–” Danny started to say, but then he cut himself off. Steve had told him about the high school talent show and his horrible stage fright. Knowing Steve now, as an adult, Danny realized that if Steve had gotten any sort of support in the endeavor from his parents, there was no way he wouldn’t have bull-headedly pushed his way past the stage fright and become a successful musician.

"You could have been a musician," Danny agreed, giving Steve a soft smile. Steve smiled back and there was that weird feeling back in Danny's chest. He'd been having it for a few months before Steve left, when he all but moved in with Steve. He'd thought it was high blood pressure or something, but it had vanished when Steve left, even though Danny's blood pressure had never been higher, worrying about him day in and day out.

And now here he was, back with Steve, and the feeling was back, too.

Looking down at his phone again, Steve said, "Kono can't meet us today, but she can do lunch tomorrow."

"Sounds good," Danny replied, pushing away that feeling and turning toward his daughter. "Grace. Tell me everything about UC Irvine, and I mean everything. If you're not doing marine biology, are there any other classes that you really took a shine to?"

"Took a shine to?" Grace asked, that teenage derision back in her voice, just for a second. Then she nodded, almost bashfully, and said, "Yeah. I took an accounting class as a math elective, since it fit into my schedule really well this quarter. I actually kind of really liked it."

Putting a hand to his forehead, Danny muttered, "Oh, my god."

"What?" Grace asked. "You minored in economics. Why do you have problems with accounting?"

"Just…" Danny took a long sip of water to ease his parched throat. "That's how your Uncle Matt got started, is all. One accounting class, and then suddenly he was a business wizard, and that, my dear daughter, led to laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel. So, excuse me if I have bad associations with accounting."

Grace gave him a long, wide-eyed look before telling him, "I thought your problem would've been Mom's old career."

Danny sat there, blinking at his daughter, completely flummoxed at himself for _forgetting_ that his ex-wife used to be an accountant when they first got married. She'd transitioned into business management somewhere along the way, which was where she met Stan, but she'd started out as an accountant. Steve kicked him under the table, so Danny ended up saying, "No, uh. If you want to take after your mother, that's a thing you can do."

"I'm not going into law enforcement, if that's what you're thinking," Grace told him.

"Oh, no. Heaven forbid _that_ ," Danny said with a laugh, putting his arm around Grace and squeezing her close. 

"You know what I could see you doing?" Steve asked, halfway through chewing a piece of bread from the basket in the middle of the table. Talking with his mouth full, like an animal. "Being a lawyer. Like, civil rights or advocacy or something."

"Huh," Grace said, and she didn't dismiss the idea outright like Danny expected.

His daughter? A lawyer? 

Oh, god help him, he could actually kind of see it.

From across the table, Steve said, "Think about it. And if you ever want, I can get you in touch with my friend Ellie. She's a lawyer back home. I'm sure she'd be willing to talk to you about what it's like."

Nodding, Grace said, "Yeah. I'll think about it."

It wasn't that Danny didn't want Steve giving his daughter advice. She needed as many good role models as she could get. But it… it reminded Danny of the waiter's implication from before. That Steve was one of her dads. The only way that would happen for real was if Steve and Danny were… well, if they were together in a way other than as best friends.

And wasn't that thought just a kick in the teeth?

~*~

When they got back to Steve's apartment, Danny realized it wasn't exactly an apartment. It was an extended stay hotel. Pointing at the sign as they pulled into the lot, Danny asked, "What's this? I thought you were planning on staying here for the long haul."

"I am," Steve told him, pulling into a spot and parking the car. "But I've only been here a week. The earliest I could move into a place would be at least a month from now. You know how it is with apartments and turn over and everything."

Danny shrugged and got out of the car, letting Steve take his suitcase from the trunk and roll it toward one of the buildings. "All I'm saying is that you call me, say, 'Danny I've decided to live in San Diego for a while' and invite me to come visit. I'm expecting you to have set down roots. Get an apartment. Buy a car. Something like that."

"I bought a mug," Steve told him. "And a French press so I don't have to buy my coffee out. What do you want from me, Daniel?"

Oh, the _full_ name. Maybe Danny was being a little harsh. "Nothing, nothing," Danny assured him, putting his hand on Steve's shoulder and squeezing lightly. "Sorry. I apologize. You're doing great. You're the picture of mental health after leaving behind everyone who cares about you."

Steve stopped, giving Danny a frown and asking, "Really? _Really_? You're gonna bring that up now?"

"I--" Danny tried to defend himself, but Steve cut him off.

"Do you want a place to sleep tonight, or not?"

Danny snapped his mouth shut. Sure, he could probably get a cab or something to the nearest actual hotel. Book a room for a couple of nights. The problem was… Well, the problem was that Danny had bought himself a one-way ticket to San Diego. He still wasn't cleared for anything other than desk work, and his retirement fund had taken a boost when he and Steve sold the restaurant to Kamekona. Between that and the cash he had from selling the newly-remodeled house, Danny figured he had at least a couple more months before he had to start working again. He'd miss Charlie something fierce in the meantime before he went back, but he'd missed Steve for the past two months, as well.

After Steve turned back toward the building, leading the way to one of the staircases, and then one of the apartments on the top (second) floor, Danny admitted in a quiet voice, "I do want a place to sleep tonight. Thank you, Steven."

Steve sighed as he got his wallet out of his pocket and held it up to the RF reader, opening the door when the light above the reader turned green. "You're welcome, Danno."

Oh, so they were back to Danno now, huh? That was a good sign.

The apartment on the other side of the door kind of reminded him of some of the high-rise apartments in Hawaii. It had that newish, but still sand-worn vibe to it. There was a little galley kitchen, a bathroom, a living room, and Danny guessed that room behind the door was the bedroom. Looking around, Danny said, "Guess I'm taking the couch."

Steve gave Danny a little bit of a look and Danny wondered if he was thinking about D.C. the same way Danny was. Or, you know, any of the dozens of nights that Danny spent at Steve's house that spring, keeping an eye on him. Inevitably, Danny would get fed up sleeping on the couch, or on the little cot-like bed in Junior's room, and would end up sacked out on the other side of Steve's bed. Most of the time, Danny woke up when his hand fell away from wherever he'd had it on Steve's body, making sure he was still there, still okay, still among the living.

Something told him that unless Steve locked the bedroom door, Danny wouldn't be able to fight the urge to go sleep next to him. He wondered what he would do if Steve did lock the door. Maybe go get that hotel room he'd been threatened with earlier. 

"No, no, it's great," Danny assured Steve, sitting down on the couch and bouncing a little on the cushions. "Nice and comfy. Perfect for a short visit."

Setting Danny's suitcase under the breakfast bar, Steve went to the fridge and pulled out two long neck beers. He popped the caps over in the kitchen, and then brought them over, handing one to Danny before sitting down on the couch next to him. "Speaking of," he asked, taking a sip of beer and swallowing it. "You never told me when your return date is."

"I, um," Danny said, looking away from Steve. "I don't have one." He took a long sip of his beer, and it wasn't the same brand as they had back home, but it was a damn close approximation. Danny wondered how many beers Steve had to drink before finding this one. 

"Isn't Charlie gonna miss you?" Steve asked. 

Sighing, Danny leaned against the back of the couch, holding the beer in his lap. "Rachel's bringing him here next week for a couple days, then the three of them are flying out to England for a month." Shaking his head, Danny admitted, "Back when we booked it, almost a year ago, we thought I'd be going too. But now?" Danny shook his head and took another drink. "Charlie won't be at home anyway. No point in me sticking around there, on desk duty, with no one except Grover and the kids to talk to."

"Oh," Steve said, and Danny could feel the weight of his gaze on the side of his face. Then he asked, "Adam?"

"Taking a leave of absence. Going to Japan to visit his fiancee's extended family."

"Fiancee?" Shaking his head, Steve muttered, "Promise me you won't tell Kono when we see her tomorrow."

"Why not?" Danny took a good look at Steve. "No point in shielding someone from the truth if they come asking for it."

Narrowing his eyes at Danny, Steve asked, "Why do I feel like that was directed at me?"

"No reason," Danny assured him, even though he had a particular incident, when Steve had gone looking for his mother, in mind. "Hey, I know it's getting late in this time zone, but I'm still on Oahu time. Wanna watch something for a while?" He pointed to the TV.

Still giving Danny a suspicious look, Steve nodded and said, "Yeah, sure," as he picked up the remote from the end table.

~*~

Danny vaguely remembered waking up in the middle of the night, using the toilet, then letting himself into Steve's bedroom. Just like every night before, Steve was sleeping on the right side of the bed. Almost like he was leaving room for Danny. Danny slipped into bed beside him, pulling the sheet over himself and setting his hand on Steve's hip. He fell back asleep a moment later.

When he woke up in the morning, it was to Steve turning over to face him. The room was still fairly dark, just enough light coming from around the curtains to see by. Wordlessly, Steve scooted closer, pulling Danny into his arms and settling down again with a sleepy sigh. Danny got comfortable, his head on Steve's shoulder, one arm slung across his waist. His right arm was kind of pinned beneath him, but it didn't matter. Not right now.

Just before Danny was about to fall back asleep, Steve scooted further down the bed, turning more toward Danny and pressing their lips together. It wasn't the first time this had happened. The first time had been back in D.C., and Steve had been _so_ sad. It hadn't happened every time Danny climbed into bed with Steve, but it had been enough of them. 

Danny kissed Steve back with long, slow, sleepy kisses. They didn't go anywhere. They _never_ went anywhere. Danny wasn't sure how he felt about that. He'd never heard of platonic making out before. Then again, there were a lot of things he'd never heard of before. Especially new things that Grace was familiar with. Or Charlie.

After a while, Steve pulled back. He set his forehead against Danny’s and sighed. “I have eggs for breakfast, if you want.”

“Sure,” Danny replied, and when Steve got out of bed, Danny let him go.

~*~

“Hey, guys,” said the familiar voice from behind Danny, and when he turned around, there she was. 

Grinning and all but jumping out of his seat, Danny said, “Kono! Long time, no see!”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” she replied with a laugh, accepting his hug and squeezing him tightly before turning to Steve and hugging him, too. 

They’d left the other side of the table open for her, and as they all sat down again, Kono asked with a twinkle in her eye, “So, did I miss the wedding?”

For a second, Danny thought she meant Adam’s wedding, but then he realized she meant him and Steve. “Ha, ha,” Danny said, reaching for his glass of water. “That old line again.”

“There has been no wedding,” Steve assured her, his tone implying that it was ridiculous to even ask. Still, the look he gave Danny bordered on actually acknowledging the Thing between them. “When’s the last time you made it up to San Francisco? Saw Chin and Abby?”

“Two months ago,” she told them, before leaning forward. Conspiratorially, she said, “Don’t let on that I told you, but they’re expecting.”

“Expecting? Wow,” Danny said, feeling the stupid grin on his face. 

“Y-you mean a baby, right?” Steve asked her. “Not like expecting a package in the mail or something?”

“Yes, a baby,” Danny said, giving Steve a back-handed little smack, but wincing at the way it pulled his still-healing wound.

Frowning at him, Kono asked, “Still giving you trouble? Chin said it was a doozy.”

“I wasn’t as close to death as this guy, with the liver,” Danny told her. “Barely even passed out from the pain.”

Steve scoffed and said, “Don’t listen to him. I was there, and he was delirious. He’s lucky I got to him in time.”

Kono gave Steve a look before her eyes slipped over to Danny. “Lucky. Right.”

“So, how are things going with the mission?” Steve asked, not so deftly changing the subject. “The last time we talked, you were still out East. What’s brought you back to California?”

“I actually spent some time training a few investigators on everything I’ve learned about sex trafficking while I was there. Now that there’s more of us, I’ve been focusing on the western half of the country.” She stirred her water with the straw before taking a sip. “I actually went ahead and got a PI license here in California. It allows lots of different agencies to hire me as an outside contractor, so I can really go where I’m needed without a lot of interagency red tape.”

“Hey,” Danny said, wagging a finger at her before pointing at Steve, “it’s all that red tape that keeps animals like this guy at least moderately in line.”

“Right,” Kono said, rolling her eyes at the thought.

“Private investigator, huh?” Steve asked, and Danny could see the wheels turning in his head as he mulled over the thought. “You making enough to live off out here?”

“Sure,” she said, “but I don’t have a house or a family or anything.” This seemed to give her a bit of pause, but then she shook her head. “The work is important.”

“Yeah, it always seems that way, doesn’t it?” Steve asked, and Danny was reminded of that last week before Steve left Hawaii, how solemn and contemplative he’d become. 

“Hey, at least you get to see your cousin on a regular basis,” Danny pointed out. “And you’ve got to go back to Oahu at some point. Visit the family?”

“I made a quiet trip back about six months ago,” Kono said, and when Danny and Steve both opened their mouths in complaint, she put up a defensive hand. “Hey, I was just visiting my mom and dad. I was in town just shy of 24 hours, and I didn’t want to deprive them of one second of visiting time. They don’t FaceTime as well as you guys do.”

“I suppose I get that,” Steve said, looking out the window and off into the distance. Danny wondered if he was thinking of the last remnants of his own family. 

Mary and Joan had lived all over the place, as far as Danny knew, but perhaps he'd heard something about them living in this area of the country. Maybe. He made a mental note to ask Steve once they were alone. It seemed… well, leaving Hawaii so he could be closer to his sister and his niece at least felt like it was Steve running _toward_ something, toward the life he wanted for himself, rather than away from all the ghosts he'd left behind. 

Rather than running away from Danny and this nameless thing that had been building between them before he left. Danny had to admit that he was relieved to have gotten Steve's invitation to meet him in San Diego for a while. Maybe it was self-centered, but he'd been afraid that he'd gotten too close and scared Steve away for good.

He should have known that Steve was braver than Danny had been giving him credit for.

"So, what are you working on these days?" Steve asked Kono, and Danny found himself interested enough in the answer to pull himself out of his thoughts and listen carefully.

"Right now, I'm working for a couple who lost their daughter," Kono replied, and Danny could practically see the weight of the case on her shoulders. "I'm running down leads that the FBI doesn't have the resources to go after. At least I convinced the FBI to take on the bulk of my fee. I don't like taking money from families who are grieving. It seems." She shook her head. "Anything the families insist on paying me, I donate back to Ho'ola Na Pua Pearl Haven Facility. It's the only way I can live with myself."

"You know, I've given real thought to becoming a PI," Danny told her. "I know the Five-0 task force is special and everything, but wouldn't it be nice to have a job where we don't get shot at on a regular basis?" Danny looked over at Steve and rolled his injured shoulder.

"Yeah, it would," Steve said, and Danny just about choked on his drink. He knew that something had changed about Steve's attitude toward the job. For some reason, he'd been thinking that as soon as Steve had enough of a break, as soon as he started to miss it, he'd want to go back to Five-0. Or at least take a job in a similar vein.

But Steve looked like he was actually considering becoming a PI. Sticking his neck out, Danny tapped Steve's arm and asked, "Hey, we could go into business together. Still be partners and everything."

"Maybe," Steve said, but that was a far cry away from an outright dismissal.

When Danny looked over at Kono, she was giving the both of them a knowing smile. Danny frowned at her and said, "Hey, why don't you tell us about the last time you were shot at. You know how he loves those stories."

Kono laughed, and Steve muttered, but he was smiling too. Everything felt kind of alright.

~*~

As Steve drove them back down the freeway between L.A. and San Diego, Danny asked, "So, where are Mary and Joan living these days?"

Steve cleared his throat and scratched his nose a little before glancing out the driver's side window. "Hillsdale. It's about twenty minutes outside San Diego."

"Then why were you giving me all that crap about, 'Oh, Danny. I spent a lot of time here when I was in the Navy. I know this place like the back of my hand.'? It's okay to want to live close to your family. Hell, I moved five thousand miles to be close to my daughter."

Sticking his chin out defiantly, Steve was silent for a long moment. Then he shook his head and admitted, "I've been thinking about leaving Hawaii for years. You know Joan is almost eight years old? I've been an infrequent, insignificant part of her life for that long. I should have… I should have done this sooner."

Though it was news to Danny that Steve had been thinking about leaving that long, it didn't surprise him. Danny had noticed the shift, the way Steve seemed to have to psych himself up for each mission. He was fairly sure no one else noticed. Steve didn't _let_ anyone notice. But he let Danny.

He let Danny see those short moments where he wasn't quite the McGarrett everyone else expected him to be. And that got Danny thinking. What if Steve hadn't stayed out of loyalty to his father's mission, or pride in his home island, or out of love for the new family he'd built out of friends?

What if he'd stayed for Danny?

Because he knew Danny wouldn't leave while his kids still lived in Hawaii? And even though the thought hadn't crossed his mind until now, Danny found he _had_ to know the answer. 

He broached the conversation with a soft, "Steve?"

"Yeah, Danny?" Steve replied, his voice just as soft, just as careful, letting Danny know he was really paying attention.

"Why didn't you leave Hawaii sooner?"

Steve did that thing where he stuck his tongue against the inside of his cheek while he was thinking, then he shrugged.

"What's–" Danny asked, mimicking Steve's shrug. "What's that? That's not an answer, Steven."

Squaring his jaw, the muscles around it clenching, Steve shrugged again before asking, "What do you want from me, Danny? You want me to admit that I was too scared to leave home again? Too stuck in my ways and too dedicated to the mission to prioritize my family the way I should have?"

"No!" Danny replied, frowning over at Steve. "Just– just answer me this. Did you stay in Hawaii because of me?"

After a long, tense moment of silence, Steve's voice came out as a whisper. "Yeah."

Danny's heart hurt, and he prayed to God he wasn't having a heart attack over Steve finally admitting some sort of feelings.

His voice a little stronger the next time, Steve repeated, "Yeah. I stayed because of you. And Junior, Tani, Jerry, Kamekona. Everybody. I felt like they needed me. Like you needed me." He shook his head, looking down the long, straight freeway ahead of them. "I think I was just scared that if I wasn't there, something bad would happen."

"Bad things happen all the time," Danny pointed out. 

Nodding, Steve gestured over to Danny's shoulder with one of his hands. "Forgot to keep in mind all the bad things that happened _because_ I was there."

Rolling his eyes, Danny said, "Hey. Good things happen all the time, too. A lot of them because of you. You can't put everyone's happiness and safety on your shoulders all the time. It's not good for you."

Steve nodded, sniffed a little, but kept his face stupidly blank, like the stupidly-trained sailor the U.S. Navy made him into. And then the resolve broke, and so did Steve's voice when he said, "I just– I just wanted _one_ person to let me take care of them. One. And I couldn't find anyone."

Danny almost told Steve that he'd been looking in the wrong places, but he didn't want to assume anything. He didn't want to assume that the kisses they'd traded were anything other than some weird form of comfort. 

On second thought, maybe he should start assuming _something_. After all, it would take at least one of them to break this stalemate they had going on here. 

"I just gotta tell you, man," Danny said, watching Steve out of the corner of his eye, but not able to look directly at him, "I think you've been looking in the wrong places."

Steve hummed an acknowledgment, but Danny was pretty sure he hadn't caught onto what Danny was trying to tell him. Maybe he wasn't ready to hear it. 

But then… _then_ Steve opened his mouth, looking like he was going to address the very big elephant in the car.

Except that's when Steve's phone rang. He answered it, holding it to his ear with his right hand, left hand on the steering wheel, basically blocking Danny from seeing his face. "Yeah. McGarrett."

After a second, he responded in a much friendlier voice, "Oh, hey! … No, we didn't have anything else planned for today. I mean," he finally looked over at Danny, and he was grinning, the tension of the earlier conversation gone, like it hadn't even existed. Danny wondered if this was what whiplash felt like. "Danny's still on the bench as far as doing anything exciting–"

"You think jumping out of an airplane like a madman is exciting," Danny muttered, but Steve was listening to the person on the phone. He wondered if maybe it was Mary. 

Steve moved over on the freeway, getting into the exit-only lane for the upcoming exit. "But, yeah. We'd love to help out."

"We would?" Danny asked, trying to get a look at Steve's face so he could get some sort of clue.

"Yeah, see you in a few." Steve finally hung up his phone, saying, "So, that was Kono."

"Kono, who we just left twenty minutes ago, Kono?" Danny asked, wondering what could have come up in that timeframe.

Steve nodded. "Yeah. She just got some new information and wondered if we wanted to help with a stake out."

"Oh, great. I'm on vacation and you're dragging me back into the work," Danny said, but he noticed that he was smiling, and that his words weren't hitting particularly hard.

This notion was confirmed when Steve laughed. "Hey, I'm just thinking, if you really want to know what it would be like to be a PI, shadowing our friend for a day couldn't hurt."

Frowning, Danny looked at Steve's profile. Then he narrowed his eyes. "You listen more than you let on, don't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Steve said, taking the exit and turning back over the freeway at the end of the ramp. 

Danny shook his head and replied, "Yeah, sure you don't."

~*~

Danny took the coffee Steve gave him, keeping his eyes on Alan Walker's building. According to Kono, Mr. Walker was suspected of laundering money for several criminal outfits. She was hoping that watching him would lead her to an as-of-yet-elusive ring of pedophiles. "Thanks. I mean, it's the least you could do after roping me into this whole situation. Oh, yeah. And after getting me shot _again_."

Steve rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to apologize for that again, Danny. I was there. I know how close I was to losing you."

"Okay," Danny replied, holding up his free hand in surrender. "Consider it dropped."

"Thank you." Steve settled down into the driver's seat, eyes on the building ahead of them down the block. "It's been a while since we did a stake out."

"This is what we had the kids for," Danny replied, blowing on the coffee to cool it down. "Though, I guess if we _were_ PIs, it would be a lot more of this, and a lot less running around, shooting people. Which, let me tell you, always bugged me. We got into way more shootouts than I think was necessary to do our jobs effectively."

When Steve opened his mouth, Danny thought maybe he was going to argue, but he closed it again. It was a few moments before he spoke again, saying, "I'm starting to think maybe you're right about that.”

“Wait. I’m right about something?” Danny couldn’t help but laugh. “I mean, _I_ know that I’m right, fairly often, in fact. Getting you to acknowledge my rightness is another story altogether.”

“That was a lot of words,” Steve replied, taking a sip of his coffee, “and none of them were ‘thank you.’”

“You know, you’ve got a point. Thank you, Steven, for taking my side for once.”

“For _once_?” Steve laughed, and Danny realized he hadn’t seen that particular smile for a lot longer than Steve had been gone. “I agree with you all the time.”

“Yeah, but agreeing about _not_ shooting people is a big step for you, babe.” Danny reached over and patted Steve’s arm. “I applaud the personal growth.”

“Applaud this.” Still looking out the windshield, Steve flicked Danny off.

Danny couldn’t help but laugh, especially knowing Steve meant him to find the move funny. Steve laughed back and it felt a little like it used to, when all they really had was each other. And Grace, Kono, and Chin.

Maybe that was why coming to California now seemed like a good idea. The second half of his life had started when he met Steve, Kono, and Chin. It had been good back then, if a little sunny for his taste. It could be good again.

“You think you could do it, though?” Danny asked. “Be a PI? I know the restaurant didn’t make any sense, but maybe going into business together on this would work out better.”

“Like a PI business? Just the two of us?” Steve asked.

“Yeah,” Danny said. “Maybe we could start it up here in San Diego, since you know so many Navy people in town.”

“Here, Danny? Come on. You’re not going to live this far away from Charlie,” Steve said, shaking his head. “I’m not going to be the reason he doesn’t see his dad all the time anymore.”

Danny nodded. It was a good point, coming from a place of concern and everything. But Steve didn’t have all the information. Danny cleared his throat, then said, "I never told you why things between me and Rachel didn't work out this last time around."

Steve gave Danny a surprised look and shook his head. "No, you didn't. I figured it was the same as every other time. You guys just aren't good together."

"No," Danny replied. "I mean, you're right about that, but it wasn't the only reason. Rachel, she…" Danny tried not to let the unhappiness show on his face, but the smile he tried to give felt more like a frown. "She kept begging me to leave the island. I guess without Stan's money, the place just isn't as much fun as it used to be."

"You always talk about how you hate Oahu," Steve told him. "I'm surprised you didn't jump at the opportunity."

Shaking his head, Danny told Steve, "For someone as smart as you are, you're so fucking dense."

"What?"

"I stayed for you," Danny told him. " _Because_ of you."

"No you didn't," Steve grumbled, like he didn't believe Danny, or maybe though Danny was rewriting history. 

Except he had no reason to think Danny was lying, except maybe his own low self-esteem. "I did, and I will prove it to you. You want me to get Rachel on the phone, right now? You can ask her yourself why I refused to move with her, why I broke things off with her."

That seemed to throw Steve for a loop. He full-on turned away from the building they were supposed to be watching and stared at Danny. "Why did you let me think it was Rachel who broke up with you?"

"Because if you knew it was me," Danny said, resisting the urge to stare right back at Steve, keeping his eyes on the mark like they were supposed to be doing, "then you would have asked me why. If it was her fault, I wouldn't have had to explain. I wouldn't have had to tell you that this whole sleeping-in-the-same-bed-and-kissing thing is what I couldn't stop thinking about when I was with her."

"But…" Danny felt the moment Steve looked away from him, and he wondered if he'd been stupid to cross that invisible line that said they didn't talk about it. Then Steve spoke. "That didn't start happening until after she broke up with you."

In for a penny, in for a pound, Danny admitted, "That doesn't mean I hadn't thought about it before then."

"Oh."

Danny didn't have a good response to such an articulate argument like, "Oh," so he focused on sipping his coffee and ignoring how hot his cheeks felt. Hey, if this all blew up in his face, at least he could buy a ticket back to Oahu and probably never speak to Steve again.

It took a full thirty minutes before Steve spoke again. He cleared his throat first, and clearly made a few attempts before finally saying, "I think maybe we should start a PI business. There's a lot more people here than on the islands. It shouldn't be too hard to drum up some customers."

"Alright. Cool," Danny said, noticing how Steve hadn't said anything about the kissing. He supposed they were ignoring it again. 

Danny was going to finally work up the nerve and ask him point-blank, but someone came out of the building just then. "Isn't that the guy we're waiting for?"

"Shit, yeah. It is," Steve replied, putting his phone to his ear while Danny lifted the camera Kono had given him. He got a few shots in before Steve said into the phone, "Our mark is on the move. Following now," and started the engine.

Knowing that even though they were unlicensed PIs in a state whose governor didn't know them personally, Danny still made sure to buckle his seat belt securely. He'd ridden with Steve too many times to do otherwise.

~*~

"You know," Kono said, as she was gathering together the last of the evidence they'd acquired together over the last two days, "it's not that hard to get a PI license. Especially since Chin is running a state-based task force. With his recommendation and all the experience you both have, it would be fairly cut and dry to get licensed."

"We're thinking about it," Steve said, giving Danny a look.

Danny didn't quite understand _what_ look that was, but he had his suspicions it had to do with it being Danny's responsibility to get Rachel onboard for moving to San Diego. Danny figured he would call her sometime soon, but it had been fun, getting back into a case with Steve and Kono. It felt like old times, back before everything fell apart.

When Kono and Chin both left, it had felt like… like he and Steve were the only two left of the old guard. Sure, Lou was still there. And Jerry. But Steve was the only one left who knew what it had been like in the beginning, what they had gone through together. So, maybe Danny let himself get a little closer to Steve. Maybe he held himself back from relationships that maybe would have worked if Danny hadn't been an idiot about them. It was a lot of maybes, and the only time any of them made sense was when he woke up in the same bed as Steve, wrapped up with him. But that was a thing they didn't talk about.

~*~

Danny was dreading this phone call, but it was time. If he wasn't going to make his weekend with Charlie three days from now, Rachel was going to have to know. And it was looking more and more like this San Diego thing… Well, if it wasn't going to be permanent, it was going to be for a _while_ at least. And Rachel needed to know.

He called her late in the evening, San Diego time, but it would have been just after dinner at Rachel's house. Part of him was praying that she wouldn't pick up and he could just leave a voicemail. But then he thought again and realized that voicemail would have gotten him in a lot of hot water. No, he couldn't leave something this life-changing as a voicemail. 

If he had recognized what this trip was going to turn into, Danny should have met with Rachel in person before he left, but it was what it was. He couldn't go back and change that mistake, so he just had to make the best of it here and now.

"Hello?" Rachel answered. "Danny? What's going on?"

"I, um," Danny said, his tongue feeling thick and his heart beating anxiously. "Sorry, I need to talk to you about something. Is now a good time?"

"Not _really_ ," Rachel said, a dark tone in her voice. "Why don't we just talk about whatever this is when you pick Charlie up on Friday?"

Danny dropped his head, resting his forehead in his free hand and sighing. "Look, I came to San Diego a week early. It's gonna be expensive for me to get back before Friday, so I'll see Charlie when you guys stop over on your way to London."

There was a long pause, before Rachel asked in a clipped tone, "Why didn't you tell me you were leaving the island? I need to know these things, Daniel."

"Yeah, I know that," he told her, sitting up a little and putting his hand to his chest. Hell, maybe this phone call was going to give him a heart attack, and then he wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. When it didn't happen right that second, Danny admitted the truth, "I wasn't sure I was gonna go through with the trip until I was on the plane, and then Steve and I were busy--"

"You're with Steve?" Rachel asked, almost accusingly.

"Yeah," Danny told her. "We saw Grace for a bit the other night. But yeah. I'm here visiting Steve. I haven't seen him for _months_ , Rache."

"And of course, you couldn't let _that_ stand," she replied sarcastically. Then she sighed and said, "Fine. When will you be back in town? Will you be flying back when we're still in London?" 

Danny stayed silent as he tried to think of how to tell her what he needed to say.

"Daniel? I need to know so I can rearrange my schedule to fit your _whims_ apparently…"

Yeah. This was why they hadn't worked out. Again.

"I can be back before you get home from London," Danny told her, but then he forged ahead so he could say his piece before she started berating him again. "But, Rache. I'm thinking… I mean, I'm seriously considering moving here."

There was a long, very tense moment of silence.

Finally, Rachel asked, "Moving? To California."

"Yeah. I'd like to. I'd be closer to Grace, and Steve's not coming back to Oahu anytime soon…" Danny looked at the closed door of their hotel room, really hoping Steve wasn't in the mood to end his morning swim early.

"Yes, that's all fine and lovely," Rachel replied, her voice thick with sarcasm, "but what about your son, Danny? What about Charlie?"

"The school year's just about over." Danny scrubbed his fingers back through his hair. "How many times over the past six years have you begged me to move back to the mainland, Rachel? I know it's a lot--"

Rachel cut him off with a curt laugh. "You think?"

"I _know_ it's a lot to ask," Danny repeated. "But you could be closer to Grace this way, too. Just think about it, would you? You know I'm not going to abandon my kids, Rache. If you want me to stay in Hawaii, I will, but…" Tears stung at the corners of his eyes and he wiped at them as he asked, "Don't I deserve to be happy? Don't I deserve something for _myself_?"

Rachel didn't respond to that question. She was silent for a moment, and then she said, "I will think about it. But you'd better be here the Friday after next, or I swear to god, Daniel, I will--"

"I'll be there," Danny assured her. "I'll be there. Have Charlie call me tomorrow, okay? I miss his face."

"But apparently not _enough_ ," she said, before hanging up.

Danny sighed and sat back on the couch, tipping his head back and closing his eyes. He took a few deep, calming breaths. It was going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay. Even if he had to fly back to Oahu every other week, it was going to be okay.

~*~

Steve didn't like being back in his father's house. As much as it _was_ home, it felt too full of ghosts to truly feel homey. At least he only had to be here long enough to finish packing. Junior walked through the kitchen with a box headed for the moving crate, and Steve said for the fifth time, "I appreciate your help. Are you… Are you sure you don't want to buy this place?"

Junior shook his head. "It's been great living here, Steve, but I could never pay you what this place is worth." Steve was just about to point out that he would sell the house to Junior for a dollar if he thought he would take it, but Junior added. "Plus, Tani and I are really settling into the new condo. It's _our_ place, you know?"

The thing was, Steve _didn't_ know. He'd never lived with someone he was dating, unless serving on the same ship counted (which Steve knew it didn't). The closest he'd come was the last few months before he left on his trip, with Danny. "Yeah," Steve said, giving Junior a nod so he could keep going with his box-toting task.

A minute later, Danny came into the kitchen, opening the fridge and pulling out a cold bottle of water. "You know," he said, standing next to Steve – closer than he would have _before_ , Steve noted – "Traditionally, when people help you move, you're supposed to supply them with beer."

" _After_ the moving, Danno," Steve told him, wrapping the last plate in newspaper and putting it into the box with the others. "What good would it do if everyone got drunk and dehydrated before the bulk of the moving was done?"

"Point taken," Danny replied, his lips curling up in a smile around the mouth of his water bottle.

When Danny lowered the bottle, Steve almost ducked in and kissed him, wondering if his lips were cold from the water. He almost did, but ultimately, Steve turned away and picked up the packing tape dispenser from the kitchen island. 

Danny must have seen something, though, because he looked at the side of Steve's face for a long moment. Steve tried to focus on taping up the kitchenware box, but it was difficult with Danny's eyes on him. 

And then Danny spoke. "You know, we're moving together."

"Yes, I do know that, Danny," Steve replied, not daring to meet Danny's eyes. "That's why we're packing everything up and spending thousands of dollars to ship it back to California."

As if he hadn't even heard Steve, Danny continued, "And we're starting a business together."

"That's what friends do," Steve said, knowing Danny meant more. He shrugged and finished taping the box. Before he could lift it and head out the kitchen door, Danny put a hand on Steve's arm.

"I just… I want to know what you're thinking. About _us_. About what this means."

God, the question _hurt_ , and Steve didn't even know why it hurt so bad. It just…

It just felt like too much. Here he was, packing up his father's house, abandoning the last remaining vestiges of his parents' lives, and Danny wanted to know what he was _thinking_? 

"Can you…" Steve started, frustrated when he couldn't make himself finish the sentence. Swallowing and looking out the window over the sink, out over the beach and the water that stretched all the way to the horizon, Steve took a breath and tried again. "Can you ask me again when we're not in my father's house?"

Danny was silent for a moment before his hand landed on Steve's shoulder, gentle but _present_ in that exactly _Danny_ way that he had of doing things. "Yeah, Steve," he said, his voice gruff and gentle all at once. "Yeah. I'll ask again. Later."

~*~

"So," Jerry said, sitting across the table from Steve and Danny. "The house is all packed up, huh?"

Danny could see _something_ in Jerry's eyes, but he wasn't quite sure what it was.

"Yeah," Steve told him, pushing the basket of breaded sea-creature into Danny's hands. "Everything's shipping out in the morning. Us included."

Picking out the more recognizable calamari rings, Danny took a few and passed the basket over the table to Noelani. "Well, we're flying," Danny told the rest of the group. "No way was I going to ride on a cargo ship for two weeks."

"Come on," Steve said, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "Ten days at the most to San Diego."

"Still not doing it," Danny insisted, wiping his greasy fingers on his napkin and reaching for his bottle of beer. "As much as I hate flying, I hate boats even more."

"You hate everything," Steve said, quiet enough that Danny knew he was the only intended audience. Just to test the waters, to see if he could, Danny put his hand over on Steve's leg. Steve bounced his leg a couple times, but he didn't shy away or move Danny's hand, or even change his expression.

"You sure we can't entice you to stay?" Lou asked from his seat next to Jerry. "I mean, it's not that I don't _want_ to lead the governor's task force, but my doctor has been asking me to reduce my stress levels."

"Hey, at least you won't be in charge of writing the incident reports for this guy," Danny said, angling his head toward Steve.

Lou and some of the others laughed. "Yeah, no kidding. Though, Lincoln has been giving you a run for your money, McGarrett." Lou raised his drink toward the end of the table, where Lincoln was sitting next to Tani. 

From beside him, Charlie said, "Danno?"

"Yeah, buddy?" Danny took his hand from Steve's leg so he could turn and face his son. "What's up?"

"What if me and mommy don't come to California?" he asked.

While things were still a little up in the air, Rachel had said that she was _looking_ for a job in the San Diego area. It wasn't a gung-ho sign that she was actually going to move, but it wasn't a "No" yet either.

"If you don't come to California," Danny said, "then I'm going to talk to you on facetime every day. And I'm going to come visit as often as I can. And you can come stay with us in San Diego during the summer and on some of your breaks from school."

Charlie nodded. He was getting bigger and more _internal_ in his thought processes these days. It occurred to Danny that Charlie was older now than Grace had been when Rachel moved her to this island. Now, in a complete reversal of events, Rachel was considering moving because Danny was following his… 

Well, his _partner_ …

Across the ocean and back to the mainland. 

Maybe Rachel wouldn't move. Maybe this move of Steve's wasn't exactly permanent. But Danny had seen the way Steve seemed _lighter_ and _brighter_ in San Diego these past few weeks. He and Grace had even dragged Danny to the zoo, of all places, and just about any other tourist trap they could think of.

Danny looked around at the people wishing them farewell, and Danny wished he could take each and every one of them with him. It wasn't fair that the people he cared about were spread out over 5000 miles of the globe. But he supposed that was _life_. It had a way of bringing people together, but it also had a way of separating them.

At some point, you had to pick and choose which people you wanted to see every day, and which ones you would still be happy with seeing much less often.

Those six weeks Steve had been traveling before he asked Danny to come to San Diego? They had been excruciating. Danny had been afraid it had just been him, that Steve had felt relieved to be away from Danny. Now, though? Now Danny was fairly certain Steve was feeling the same way.

Except he wouldn't fucking talk about it. Not in his father's house, not in the car on the way to dinner. And not at dinner, of course. Not in front of all those people.

For as social a guy as Steve was, Danny had always recognized how insanely private he was about anything that mattered. Really _mattered_.

Danny didn't ask when they got back to the McGarrett house, sleeping on an air mattress they'd borrowed from Lou. He didn't even ask when Steve woke him up in the middle of the night just to shoot the shit about sea turtles of all things.

"Really? You want to talk about sea turtles?"

Steve had laid still next to Danny for a long moment, before admitting, "I can't sleep."

With a sigh, Danny rolled closer to Steve (not that he had much of a choice – Steve was kind of dense and making a deep gravity well in the air mattress). "I told you we should have just sprung for a hotel."

Steve didn't answer at first, and Danny prepared himself for a lecture about the importance of sea turtles to the ecology of the ocean, but then Steve put his arm around Danny and whispered, "I just wanted one last night, you know? To say goodbye."

"All you had to do was say that," Danny replied, putting his face against Steve's neck. "I can deal with a sleepless night, you know, for a good reason. And before you try to say it, saving eighty bucks is not a good reason. It's just _not_."

A low chuckle rumbled through Steve's chest and his fingers tightened on Danny's shoulder. "You know, you've gotten less miserly as you've aged."

"Hey, I was never _miserly_ ," Danny insisted. "I was a man who'd been taken to the cleaners by his ex-wife's divorce attorney."

Steve chuckled again before sighing and laying still. For a moment, Danny thought he'd fallen asleep, but then Steve asked, "Do you miss your house?"

"My house? The one with all the mold and the sewage back up?" Danny scoffed. "No. I don't miss it. I miss having a bedroom for Charlie to stay when he's with me, but that house? Nah. It's not about the house. It's about the people who lived in it for a bit."

"Hmm," Steve said, and when Danny shifted and looked at his profile, his eyes were closed. Except, Danny had spent enough nights sleeping next to Steve to recognize that he wasn't asleep. His hold on Danny's shoulder was too present, and his mouth wasn't hanging open. 

Maybe that's why Danny figured he might as well start talking. Steve could pretend he wasn't listening, that he was asleep, but Danny would know he'd heard it. 

In a quiet whisper, Danny said, "A house is just a house, you know. A building. Like, yeah, maybe it's the place where your memories take place, but it wasn't like you lost all those memories while you were away. They stick with us. We take them with us."

Steve didn't respond, but Danny hadn't really been expecting him to. 

~*~

"All I'm saying is that it would be nice to have found a house by the time the boat with all our stuff gets here," Danny said, pressing his room key to the latch and waiting for the light to turn green before he opened the door.

"What?" Steve asked, grinning at Danny. "You don't want to live out of this excellent establishment for the next few months?"

He took a deep breath – industrial cleaning products burning his nose just a bit – and laughed when Danny backhanded him. Ever since turning the keys to his father's house over to the realtor that morning before catching a flight back to California, Steve had felt. Better. Lighter, somehow. 

"You're an animal, and I weep for you, I really do," Danny muttered, but there was a bit of a smile on his face too. Steve wasn't quite sure Danny was as relieved by the move away from Oahu as he was, but Danny was _here_. Charlie and Rachel would probably move here by the end of the year. Grace was going on some study abroad thing in the UK over the summer, but eventually everyone would be here.

"Hey, Danny?" Steve said as he set down his bag and sat down on the bed, kicking off his shoes.

Danny, busy with putting his suitcase in _just_ the right spot on the bureau, distractedly said, "Yeah?"

"You wanna have that talk?"

"What talk?" Danny asked, looking at Steve for just a second before he seemed to get it. "Oh. That talk."

He came over and sat in the desk chair, which seemed too far away, but Steve got it, too. He wasn't even sure how this talk was going to go, and he'd been planning it in his head for the last 36 hours. Before Steve could get out any of his carefully-chosen words, Danny started talking.

"This thing," he said, pointing back and forth between himself and Steve, "it's happening, right? I'm not delusional here, right? I mean, we've kissed. That's not… It _means_ something, to–to me, anyway. And we're gonna buy a _house_ together, Steve. That's not the sort of thing people do without some sort of commitment."

"Like _marriage_?" Steve asked, shifting uncomfortably. The thought of marriage just reminded him of the way Catherine had told him she wanted to stay, but the way she kept leaving anyway. "Danny, I don't…"

"Jesus, would you just listen to me?" Danny grumbled, scooting closer and putting his hand on Steve's knee. "Sure we've been best friends for a decade, but that doesn't mean we're far enough along in _this_ to get _married_ anytime soon. I mean, maybe eventually, but I just want to know – if we do this, if I do this with you, am I gonna have a partner, like a _real_ partner, or am I just gonna be the body keeping your bed warm at night, and the rest of the time we're just friends? Because I gotta say, I don't think I can do things that way for much longer."

Steve heartbeat pounded in his ears. He nodded, trying to get his thoughts together, but all he could really hear was Danny saying he was going to leave soon unless Steve got his shit together. The best Steve could do without giving himself was put a hand over Danny's on his knee. 

Forcing the words out before he could choke on them, Steve said, "You want a real relationship."

"Yeah," Danny said.

Steve nodded, licking his suddenly-dry lips. "I don't think I can be, like, rah-rah _out_ there," Steve told him. "But I could give it a shot. As myself."

Half a smile tugging the corners of his mouth upward, Danny said, "Well, yeah, as yourself. I'm not asking for anything else, Steve."

~*~

"This is the one, Danny," Steve said, walking around the staged house, looking up at the vaulted ceiling in the living room. "This is our house."

"It's probably directly on a fault line," Danny replied, opening a closet door and sticking his head inside. 

Steve came over, putting his hands on Danny's shoulders. "It's _not_ on a fault line. I already checked."

This seemed to surprise Danny, who was smiling as he turned around. "You already checked? Who are you?"

Steve laughed, resting his arms on Danny's shoulders and linking his hands together behind Danny's neck. "Another reason we should get this place? No stairs. When your old-man knees finally give out, I won't have to carry you up them to put you to bed at night."

Danny made an interesting sort of face, and Steve thought his cheeks might have gone a little pink. Steve wondered _why_ , but then a guess popped to mind. "Oh," he said, meeting Danny's eyes and not letting him duck away. "Have you been thinking about that a lot?"

"I do not want to have this conversation here. The realtor is just over in the kitchen, Steven," Danny admonished with a deep frown on his face. Then he looked away and admitted, "But yes."

A thrill of something raced up Steve's spine. He couldn't tell if it was fear or excitement. HIs years as a SEAL had irrevocably intertwined the two, much to Danny's constant chagrin. Of course, he'd also spent many of his formative years teasing his colleagues in ways that often conflated weakness with relationships like… well, like _this_. 

Whatever _this_ was.

Steve sure as hell didn't know, but he could finally admit to himself that he wanted to find out. 

And he wanted to find out in this house.

"So, are we putting an offer in?" Steve asked, watching Danny hem and haw a bit before nodding.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay," he said, his hands warm on Steve's hips. "But we're putting in a reasonable offer. I'm not spending _thousands_ of extra dollars because you just have to have _this_ house, okay? I made that mistake with Rachel, I am not going to make it again."

Noticing the opportunity that presented itself, Steve said, "But, Danno! I want it."

"Stop that right now, you little shit," Danny scolded.

Steve laughed and gave him a quick kiss before letting go. "Okay, okay. We'll put in a reasonable offer." When Steve looked back, Danny was standing still, almost flummoxed-looking. Steve asked him, "What are you doing?"

Danny blinked a few times before meeting Steve's eyes. "That's the first time you've done that while it's still light out," he said, gesturing out the picture window on the western wall of the room.

Thinking back, Steve realized that Danny was right. The thing was, Steve didn't really know why he had thought it was okay to kiss Danny at night, in the dark. He supposed because then, he could be sure that no one else would be watching. No one besides Danny would know for sure that it had happened.

But here? And now? What did other people's opinions matter? The realtor already knew they were buying a house together. Of course she wouldn't be surprised to see Steve and Danny kissing. She probably expected it.

 _And_ , Steve realized, there was no way word would get back to his dad.

It was stupid. His dad had passed away an entire _decade_ ago, and still… Everyone he met on Oahu, everyone who was kama'aina, anyway, could have known his dad. Everyone had the capacity to be disappointed in how John McGarrett's son had turned out, in how Steve McGarrett's grandson had turned out. It was a lot of history to live up to.

John McGarrett had never been stationed out of Coronado. Anyone who had ever served with him out of Pearl was now either dead or retired. Joe White's legacy was here, but Steve knew, he _knew_ that Joe wouldn't have been ashamed of Steve. Not because of his relationship with Danny, anyway. He wanted to think the same about his father, but ultimately, Steve had spent a lot less time with his father than with Joe. He didn't get to know John as an adult. He didn't get to learn his opinions on things like this.

Very deliberately, Steve approached Danny, bracketing Danny's face between his hands. Then Steve kissed Danny. Once. Twice.

With a smile, Steve said, "Let's decide which room is gonna be Charlie's."

Danny's grin turned down and he backed away from Steve, holding up a finger. "Oh, no. Oh, no! We assign rooms, that's like naming the cow who's gonna be dinner. You just don't do it! You get too invested and you can't kill it when you need to!"

Steve laughed and walked away from Danny, shaking his head. He ambled back through the house, making a mental tally of what could go where. The biggest bedroom was right at the start of the hallway. Steve liked that. He liked his door being between the outside world and the kids' rooms. 

Not that Grace was a kid anymore, but she needed a place to come home to just as much as any college kid did. The best Steve ever had during that time was Deb's place. Here in California. 

Steve smiled. He knew Deb would understand his relationship with Danny. She would get it.

Yeah, this was a good place, and this was _the_ house. Steve could feel it.

~*~

"Hey, thanks for coming down!" Danny heard Steve say as he opened the front door. With a grin, Danny set down his knife, mid tomato-chop, and headed for the foyer, wiping his hands on a kitchen towel.

"Hi!" he said when Chin came into the house. "Long time no see, man!"

"Danny!" Chin said, his face lit up with a wide grin. He met Danny halfway, embracing him in a tight hug. "You and Steve finally bit the bullet and moved in together, huh? The place looks great!"

"Thanks," Danny replied, watching Sara skittishly follow her uncle into the room, a shy smile on her face. "Wow! You are so much taller than the last time I saw you!"

Putting an arm around his niece, Chin said, "Growing like a weed these days."

"She's going to be as tall as me someday soon," Abby said, accepting a hug from Danny as well. She wasn't quite showing yet, but Danny recognized the loose shirt and what it meant. 

Kono was with them, chatting with Steve at the door about something or other. Ever since they'd moved in three weeks earlier, Kono had been a regular fixture at the house. Danny got the impression that she missed having friends around, especially ones who knew what it was like, tracking down the worst of the worst.

"Welcome," Danny told them, gesturing to the living room just off the foyer. "Come on! Sit! Let me get you something to drink." He pointed at Chin. "We still have half a case of longboards that made the trip!"

With a laugh at the mention of their unofficial 'official' team beer, Chin nodded. "Sure! I'd love one!"

"Me too!" Kono called from the doorway. After confirming that Abby wanted sparkling water and Sara was good with a soda, Danny returned to the kitchen. "Hey," he said to Grace, watching the way she stretched the pizza dough. "Take some drinks, go say hi. I've got this, kiddo."

"You'll tear it," Grace said, but she smiled and let Danny load her up with drinks for the guests.

Danny had just gotten the second dough properly stretched and laid out on the peel when Steve came into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and grabbed out a beer, popping the top. Then he squeezed Danny's shoulder and said, "It's nice to have guests again."

"Besides Kono, you mean?" Danny said, frowning as he concentrated on spreading the sauce he'd made the day before. Finding the right kind of canned tomatoes had been so much easier here than it ever had been on Oahu.

"Yeah, besides Kono. Feels more like home with people in it."

"It _does_ , doesn't it?" Danny said, leaning over and puckering his lips until Steve snorted and gave him a kiss. "Now get back out there. You can entertain our guests with the story of last week's case."

Steve laughed and nodded. "Good idea. Kono hasn't heard that one yet, either."

By the time Danny had both pies in the oven, Steve was finishing up the story to raucous laughter. Danny set the timer on his phone, got himself a beer, and wandered into the other room slow enough that he could enjoy the sounds of _life_ and _family_ without quite having to be _on_ yet.

He entered during a lull in the conversation, taking a seat on the arm of Steve's chair.

"Oh!" said Kono, getting to her feet. "We brought you a housewarming present!" She went to the foyer for a moment and came back with a pot held in both hands. Inside the pot was some sort of plant.

Danny didn't recognize the plant, but Steve sat forward in his chair and asked, "Is that a plumeria tree?"

"Yeah," Kono said with a grin. "It's a cutting from the tree in Kamekona's yard. I got him to send it a few weeks ago. I _think_ I got it rooted well enough."

Danny smiled at the look of awe and gratitude on Steve's face. Standing up, Steve took the pot from Kono and gave her a one-armed hug. "Mahalo."

As Steve released her, Kono gave a shrug before accepting Danny's hug as well. "I figured a little piece of home would be welcome. _And_ a house isn't really a home until it's got at least a few plants."

Grace asked, "How long until it starts making flowers, do you think?"

Sitting back down in the chair across the room as Steve settled the pot in the lanai window, Kono replied, "Probably about a year, but the wait will be worth it."

Watching Steve return from the lanai, a wide grin on his face, Danny said, "I know how that goes."

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to visit Rehaliah's masterpost and give it some love!
> 
> If you'd like to come say hi, I'm [over on tumblr](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/)!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Housewarming - Art Masterpost](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26068054) by [DarKymi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarKymi/pseuds/DarKymi)




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